1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to inventorying items within an operating environment such as a warehouse.
2. Background Information
Various methods are known in the art for inventorying items within a warehouse. For example, items may be counted when received at or stored within the warehouse. Items may also be counted when retrieved from or shipped out of the warehouse. The quantity of outgoing items may be subtracted from the quantity of incoming items to determine the item inventory for the warehouse. Such an inventorying method, however, cannot account for mistakenly uncounted incoming and/or outgoing items. Such an inventorying method also cannot account for items that are misplaced within the warehouse and, thus, cannot be found for retrieval.
Inventorying errors caused by miscounted and/or misplaced items may be manually reconciled by warehouse workers. The warehouse workers, for example, may go shelf-by-shelf and item-by-item through the warehouse to count each of the items. The warehouse workers may also re-locate any misplaced items that are found during the item-by-item accounting. Such a reconciling method, however, can be time consuming and expensive.
There is a need in the art for improved systems and methods for inventorying items within an operating environment such as a warehouse.